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Friday, May 29, 2015

Holiday weekends can equal a
long commute to your final destination, especially if leaving from Southern
California. On Fridays, travelling east can be long. Your travel time can vary
between 4 to 7 hours when heading out to Las Vegas, NV on a Friday night.

Travel Tip: If you have a lot of data to spare, use the Waze app. It can save
you time and gas money. My friend who left for Las Vegas one hour after
us, arrived in Las Vegas two hours before we did. Her drive time was 4
hours, our drive time was 7 hours.

A great place to stop for gas
and a meal is Lenwood Road in Barstow. They have all of the major gas stations
like Chevron, Shell, etc. They also have a huge selection of restaurants to
choose from. We normally stop at Del Taco so I can get my Bun Taco and Combo
Cup, but we decided to eat at Original Tommy’s Hamburgers for a change of pace. All of the entrees are served with Tommy’s famous chili
unless otherwise requested. Their chili is very thick and sticks to everything –
burgers, hot dogs, fries, you name it.

Triple Cheeseburger (upgraded
to ¼ lb. patties), topped with cheese, chopped onions, tomato, pickles,
mustard, and of course, chili. The burger was served on the tray and looked
like a volcanic lava flow. The thick and viscous chili slowly oozed from the
burger along with the melted cheese. The hubby used his fries to scoop up the
saucy deliciousness of chili before he went in to devour this marvel of food
porn. The patties were juicy. The chili and cheese just made this scrumptious
burger along with acidic elements from the pickles, onions, and mustard.
Rating: 4/5

Chili Cheese Fries was
calling my name. After 5 hours behind the wheel, I was hungry but had a comfort
food craving. Just like the Triple Cheeseburger, the chili overflowed the fry
basket and melted the cheese. The gooey chili cheese wrapped perfectly on each
fry with no drips on the table, my shirt, or my face. I knew I could eat
something else but since it was almost midnight, I saved my hunger for the
morning. Rating: 4.5/5

As we pulled up to the Elara, trying
to find where to park can be a challenge. It is a shared parking garage between
Elara, Planet Hollywood, and the Miracle Mile Shops. This was the only
timeshare in the Hilton Grand Vacations Club family that we had not stayed at
and wanted to give it a try. The hotel/timeshare has 1201 rooms and soars 52
floors above the Strip.

Parking Tip: Park on any level near the center elevators. Take the
elevators or escalators (if you don’t have too much luggage) to Level 3.
There is a walkway directly into the Elara. Otherwise, you will have to
walk through the mall with your luggage in tow.

The One Bedroom Suite has a
full kitchen with stainless steel appliances, light cookware, and self-brew
coffeemaker; Living area with 42” flat-screen TV, sleeper sofa, club chairs, coffee
table and 8-foot HD Home Theatre Projector; High-speed wireless internet access;
Bathroom has a 15” TV, washer/dryer combo, enclosed shower and toilet, and
oversized jet stream tub. The windows are floor to ceiling with automatic shade
retraction during the day and closure when it’s time to sleep. The décor is
very boutiquey with red painted walls in the kitchen/living room, red L-shaped
sofa bed, and zebra-print lounge in the bedroom. We had a southern vantage with
views of MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Monte Carlo, and City Center. The pool looked
beautiful from the room, but was too busy to try when the sun was out. The
clouds starting moving in and closed our chance for sunbathing.

Las Vegas South Premium Outlets is a huge outlet mall where you can find exactly what you’re looking for and
save some money too. We have been shopping here for years and have saved a
sizable chunk of change on clothing, kitchenware, linens, handbags, and more.
Here’s a sample of what you might save:

Vanity Fair Outlet: 3 pairs of short for $39.98 each. On sale for
$15.99 each. Savings of $71.97!

The Jockey Store: Multi-pack of underwear for $22.50 each and
Silver Line Night Shirt for $30. On sale for $19.98. If you are a Jockey Rewards member, you receive store certificates in the mail for your purchases.
With $20 in rewards, these were for FREE – savings of $52.50!

Quiksilver: Shorts for $34.99 each. On sale for $25 each. Savings
of $20!

Silver Sevens Hotel &
Casino (formerly Terrible’s Hotel & Casino) has a lot of slot and video poker specials. On Saturdays, you get 10x points on reels and video reels, and 4x points on
video poker. A-Play Clubis my favorite club. As long as you use
your card once a year, your points do not expire. They also have great food
specials in the Sterling Spoon Café. Just check the billboard out front for the
latest special.

Having a full kitchen in your
room has its advantages. We have a standard box that we bring that contains a
non-stick frying pan, Brita water pitcher, and other kitchen necessities that
the timeshares don’t usually have. Plus, we bring a food staple of powdered
drinks like iced tea and lemonade; refrigerated items that wouldn’t last in our
home refrigerator while we were gone, and select frozen items like salmon
fillets, pizza, etc. to make during the trip. For lunch, I made a sesame chili
marinated salmon fillet atop salad and inside whole wheat naan as a sandwich
with some lettuce and cucumber.

An hour before sunset, we starting
walking to The Linq to ride The High Roller. It was a 15-20 minute relaxed walk from Elara to The Linq. A promenade of
outdoor shopping, dining, and entertainment leads you to the focal point, The
High Roller. There is a bar in the queue where you can order up your favorite
drink to take with you on the ride. It is 550 feet tall and each cabin can hold
up to 40 people. The 30-minute ride will show you views of the Las Vegas Strip
and vicinity – Red Rock to the west and Henderson to the east. Due to the heavy
cloud coverage, sunset was not seen, but it could be great on a nice clear day.
The colors on The High Roller were red, white, and blue for Memorial Day
Weekend.

A short walk north of The
Linq is the brand new White Castle location. It opened on January 27, 2015 next to Casino Royale has been busy
ever since. The only time I could get a White Castle was when I was in Chicago
for a tradeshow. I simply had to hit the Vegas location up for these tasty
little sliders.

Loaded Fries are topped with
cheese sauce, ranch, and bacon. I love the crinkle cut fries which holds the
sauce and toppings really well. Nothing better than cheesy fries, unless they
are topped with chili too. Rating: 5/5

Double Original Slider is two
beef patties with an extra piece of bread in the middle and topped with onions
and pickle. Patties are steam grilled with the onions which adds more flavor to
the patty. The buns are put on top to steam as well. The whole slider is just
juicy and soft. There are imitators but this is the original! Rating: 3/5

Double Cheese Slider is two
beef patties with an extra piece of bread in the middle and topped with cheese,
onions, and pickle. When I bit into the first one, I was in foodie heaven.
There is nothing like the juicy beef flavor with the grilled onions and gooey
cheese. I was being good, but I could have easily eaten a couple more of these.
Rating: 5/5

On the way back to the Elara,
we stopped by NUMBat Harrah’s Casino for a Mango Kush made
with mango, Cruzan rum, Skyy passion fruit floater. It was a frozen drink with
the perfect balance of sweet fruit flavor and rum. Not overly alcoholic with a
smooth flavor.

Savings Tip: If you keep your cup, you receive $2 off your future
refills. We keep this cup in our timeshare box so we always have it when
we go to Vegas.

As we took in the sights of
The Strip, the neon a glow lead us back to the Elara. A restful night’s sleep
was anxiously awaited to build up stamina for Day 2. Good night, Las Vegas!

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About Me

OC Food Diva is a local foodie in Orange County, CA with 11 years experience in restaurants - from kitchen to service to menu & restaurant design. With an adventurous appetite, Chelsea scours Orange County (and the rest of the USA) for great eats.